Allow Me To Give You The Gears

Available in paperback here

This post at Kottke.org shows us the beauty of mechanical movement. In 1868  Henry T. Brown wrote a book with a cumbersome title (Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements: Embracing All Those Which Are Most Important in Dynamics, Hydraulics, Hydrostatics, Pneumatics, Steam Engines, Mill and Other Gearing, Presses, Horology, and Miscellaneous Machinery; and Including Many Movements Never Before Published and Several of Which Have Only Recently Come Into Use).  In his book Brown uses simple drawings to explain 507 of the small components that constitute complex machinery.

Ralph Steiner’s 1930 short film Mechanical Principles, illustrates many of the mechanisms from Brown’s book in action.